"Admiral, the radar discovered an unknown aircraft group. The one flying from the northeast should be p-39!"

In the commander tower of the "War-Yang" the radar officer's report made everyone feel relieved. The "Sea Spitfire" on the "Eagle" was either shot down or fell into the sea because of exhausting fuel. Therefore, the "War-Yang" did not have air cover when fighting the second assault wave of enemy aircraft, so it suffered heavy losses. Now with the cover of the p-36, the fleet seems to be able to protect it.

"Admiral, three squadrons of p-36 are here!" Soon there was another communications consultant report from the fleet, "They came from Crete and can provide us with a 90-minute direct cover."

"Very good!" Admiral Cunningham smiled reluctantly, "Now approach Crete and tell Lieutenant General Somerville to repair it as soon as possible and strive to increase the speed to above 15 knots before dark... We cannot lose the 'Rodney' now."

Now Cunningham has a little regret. In this battle, the Eagle was lost, and the Lorraine and the Junquan were both under his calculations. Since he wanted to break into the combat circle of the German shore-based aviation force, he had to be prepared to bear some losses. However, the powerful super battleship such as the Rodney was actually hit hard by the plane, which was much beyond his expectations.

Although the "Rodney" can still float on the sea with its strong armor and good anti-sinking design. However, after the battle, the battleship will have to spend several months to undergo overhaul. This means that the "Rodney" will not be able to participate in the battle for several months... For the current Mediterranean battlefield, this is almost the same as the sinking effect.

However, Cunningham cannot give up the Rodney now, because the Rodney is still a bait of strategic value. As long as it slowly heads to Crete, the Italians will definitely not give up the opportunity to sink it.

Because after losing the "June Power" and "Lorraine", the number of battleships in the Mediterranean Fleet has been the same as that of the Italian Fleet. If the most powerful "Rodney" is lost, the power balance in the Mediterranean will undergo a tremendous change. With the huge power of the two "Veneto" class, the Italian Navy will overwhelm the British Mediterranean Fleet, which has only 5 battleships left, and become the overlord of the Mediterranean!

"Admiral, the 'June Power' is about to sink!" Major General Crachley's voice suddenly sounded, interrupting Cunningham's thoughts, "It is being besieged by he-115!"

It turned out that the P-39 aircraft flew from Crete were desperately covering the "Rodney" at this time, and threw the "Jun Quan" that was burned out but lost its power to the He-115 to clean up. In just a few minutes, 24 He-115s dropped torpedoes at the "Jun Quan", of which 8 hit. The battleship more than 30,000 tons suddenly lost and sank into the Mediterranean. Less than 40 of the 940 crew members on the ship were rescued.

"We have lost the 'monarchy'!" Major General Krachley's voice was almost crying. Two battleships and the Eagle aircraft carrier have sunk! The "Rodney" battleship is also half dead... This battle is about to lose!

"It doesn't matter," Cunningham smiled reluctantly, "we haven't lost yet, because the Italian fleet has dispatched... Fleet b will soon avenge the Eagle, the King's Power and the Lorraine."

At this time, the fierce air battle began near the British Mediterranean Fleet. This was the first contest between the P-39 "Flying Snake" and the Folk Zero. The number of p39 is large, with 3 squadrons in total 48 aircraft, while the Folk Zero has only 16 aircraft.

The number of p39 does not realize that its performance is inferior to others. All British pilots who flew through this kind of aircraft praised its excellent low-altitude performance, thinking it was an aircraft that could compete with the Folk Zero.

So after the fight, the p39 aircraft fleet did not immediately take advantage of its overwhelming numerical advantage, but instead used 24 p39s to deal with 16 Folk Zero, and then used the remaining 24 p39s to drive away the torpedoes, forcing most of the he-115s to throw away the torpedoes and escape, and shot down 12 of them.

However, while these p39s drove and shot down the he-115, the 24 p39s fighting with the Folk Zero found that they seemed to have met their nemesis. Although the p39 has good flexibility in the medium and low altitude, they encountered the Folk Zero, which can be the king of the medium and low altitude. The performance of the p39 is not good enough in the medium and high altitude, and the climbing speed is also slow. It is impossible to rely on pulling high and diving against the Folk Zero like "Sea Spitfire". As a result, in less than 10 minutes, 10 of the 24 p39s were shot down, while the Folk Zero did not lose any losses.

Cunningham, who witnessed the air battle in the commander's tower of the "War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-War-W

"Admiral," Major General Krachley's voice was a little hoarse, "P39 and Blenheim on Crete..."

"According to the original plan, let them launch an attack first to consume the carrier-based aircraft of Italian aircraft carriers..." Cunningham frowned, "Today we must sink two Italian aircraft carriers, at any cost... Otherwise we will lose the Mediterranean within a month!"

Without aircraft carriers, the Italian fleet would never dare to leave the protection circle of shore-based aircraft even if it had an advantage on battleships. The United Kingdom could use the shore-based aircraft on Crete to cooperate with two aircraft carriers to block the Italian Navy's path toward eastward advance.

Of course, the premise is that there must be a large-range fighter that can fight against the Folk Zero...

...

"Marson, the third assault wave did not achieve the expected results."

In the Medici Villa, Hessman also received a report on the results of the third assault wave operation. Hans Yeshunnek frowned and said to Hessman: "They encountered a fighter jet that they had never seen before. 12 of the He-115 were shot down. However, this fighter jet was not a match for the Folk Zero. Ten were shot down, and there was no loss in the Folk Zero."

"New fighter? Where did they come from?"

"Maybe it's Crete," Hans Yeshunnek said, "it could also be taken off the aircraft carrier."

He thought about it and said, "If you come from Crete, the maximum range of this type of aircraft should be more than 1,500 kilometers. Otherwise, it will take off from the aircraft carrier..."

1500km voyage?

Hessman thought for a while and said, "It may be Fairley's 'Tube Swallow' carrier-based fighter. Intelligence shows that the range of this aircraft may exceed 1,200 kilometers."

Hessman did not expect it was the American p39, but thought of the British "pig-nosed swallow". After all, he is now fighting with the UK.

"It seems that this is the aircraft," said Yeshunnek. "In this case... the two aircraft carriers may be lurking 400 kilometers northeast of the British main fleet, so our -200 did not find them."

Hessman also recognized Yeshunnek's analysis and asked: "Can you search for -200?"

"There are 2 aircraft," said Yeshunnek. "The Eagle can send eight Fokker Zero to escort so that they can search the waters south of Crete."

"Okay, that's it."

"In addition, the fifth and sixth assault waves should be cancelled soon." Yeshunnek suggested, "If an aircraft carrier is found, we need these aircraft to bomb. Moreover, the fifth attack wave has no fighter escort, and it will be troublesome if it encounters the British 'Tube Swallow' fighter."

Now the fourth assault wave is actually the aircraft that returned from the first assault wave. They have set off again and will not be recalled. However, Yeshunnek feels that it is not safe to let the fifth assault wave without aircraft escort (originally planned to be escorted with -190). So he suggested canceling it, and canceling the sixth assault wave at the same time, in order to prepare for an attack on the British aircraft carrier.

"Can be cancelled." Hessman, who had fought a beautiful battle for a long time, began to be confused like Yeshunnek. He canceled two waves of attacks, especially the cancellation of the fifth wave of assault consisting of 5 squadrons of Ju88 and 8 squadrons of S.M.79, which almost meant that a British battleship was released!

Otherwise, at least another battleship would be sunk by the fifth wave of attack, and it would be possible to directly sink the half-life Rodney.

Hessman and Yeshunnek were not born in the navy, and they could not understand the essence of "when the enemy is destroyed", which roughly means: the enemy's fleet is not easy to see, and it may not be able to be destroyed when it is seen, so when it is destroyed, no matter how many people can be destroyed, you will destroy it first, don't worry about any plans.

While two naval laymen were commanding blindly (actually commanding according to the "Harves" plan), General Kafnary of the Italian Navy was using telegram to contact General Compionni, who was commanding the fleet, and finalizing the tactics for the night battle tonight.

Because Admiral Kafniari was already sure that the British fleet was blown up by the plane, there should be many half-dead main battleships. If they were allowed to escape back to Egypt, they might be repaired in a few months and they would be vigilant again.

Therefore, General Kafnyari proposed a method of fighting a "chaotic war" in the telegram. The so-called "chaotic war" can probably be understood as a melee, not using battle lines to fight a dignified formation, but disrupting the formation and conducting melee.
Chapter completed!